This study examines a range of South African speculative novels which situate their narratives in futuristic or ‘alternative’ milieus, exploring how these narratives not only address identity formation in a deeply divided and rapidly changing society, but also the ways in which human beings place themselves in relation to Nature and form notions of ‘ecological’ belonging. It offers close readings of these speculative narratives in order to investigate the ways in which they evince concerns which are rooted in the natural, social and political landscapes which inform them. Specific attention is paid to the texts’ treatment of the intertwined issues of identity, belonging and ecological crisis. This dissertation draws on the fields of Ecocriticism, Postcolonial Studies and Science Fiction Studies, and assumes a culturally specific approach to primary texts while investigating possible cross-cultural commonalities between Afrikaans and English speculative narratives, as well as the cross-fertilisation of global SF/speculative features. It is suggested that South African speculative fiction presents a socio-historically situated, rhizomatic approach to ecology – one that is attuned to the tension between humanistic- and ecological concerns.

This thesis endeavours to establish how political transformation in South Africa has impacted on the didactic function of locally produced young adult fiction between the years of 1985 and 2006. To this end, a selection of young adult novels and short stories are examined in relation to the time period during which they were written or are set, namely the final years of apartheid (from 1985 to the early 1990s), the period of transition from apartheid to democracy (approximately 1991 to 1997), and the early years of the twenty-first century (2000 to 2006). Chapter One provides a brief overview of publishing for the juvenile market in South Africa over the last century, noting how significant historical and political events affected both the publishing industry itself and the content of children's and young adult literature. This chapter also adumbrates the theoretical foundations of the study. The second chapter examines a selection of texts either written or set during the final years of the apartheid regime. This chapter establishes how authors during this period challenged notions of racial inequality and undermined the policies of the apartheid government, with varying degrees of success. The authors' methods in encouraging their (predominantly white) readers to question apartheid ideology are also interrogated. Those novels written after, but set during, the apartheid era are examined with the aim of determining their authors' didactic objectives in revisiting this period in their novels. Chapter Three explores how authors writing during the transition period aimed to encourage readers to participate in the building of a 'rainbow nation,' by portraying idealised modes of relating to the racial 'other.' While some of the authors examined in this chapter are optimistic, and even naïve, in their celebration of a newly established democracy, others are more cautious in suggesting that decades of oppression and separation can so easily be overcome. Chapter Four demonstrates how the freedoms afforded by a democratic society have prompted young adult authors to explore the possibilities of adapting the sub-genre of the teenage problem novel to suit a distinctly South African context. While some of these texts are not overtly didactic in nature, they confront the unique issues faced by a generation of South African teenagers raised in a democratic society, and in some cases challenge readers to reconsider their approach to such issues.

The establishment of the Transvaal University College (TUC) in Pretoria took place at a very significant historical time in the wake of the South African War and its first decade coincided with the formation of the Union of South Africa and the outbreak of World War I. Furthermore, in this period successive administrations of the Transvaal and of South Africa pursued an ideal of forming a new unified white South African identity known as broad South Africanism. This project was strongly associated with education and found expression in much of the discourse regarding emerging higher education in the country. This study will approach the early history of the TUC from the perspective of broad South Africanism, attempting to shed light on white identity politics and their relationship to higher education in these early decades of the twentieth century. The thesis will begin by examining university history as a genre of historical writing, highlighting various approaches to the writing of university histories. It will then investigate the development of universities in Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in order to point out influential trends and models which can be traced in the establishment of South African universities. This is followed by a brief account of the growth of higher education in South Africa, paying particular attention to its development in the Transvaal which gave rise to the establishment of the TUC, first in Johannesburg and then in Pretoria. The development of the notions of broad South Africanism and conciliation will then be considered followed by an examination of how these notions were related to higher education in this period. The study will then focus specifically on the way in which broad South Africanism was manifested at the TUC. It will highlight official intentions regarding broad South Africanism at the College and the initial responses of the student body to this policy. A second section will discuss the development of broad South Africanism at the TUC after the outbreak of World War I and the ensuing 1914 rebellion. This will also include an investigation of sentiments which opposed broad South Africanism, favouring a more exclusive white identity. Thus, this study will endeavour to demonstrate how an understanding of university history can shed further light on a complex period in South African history and highlight the significant relationship between higher education institutions and the wider historical context. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Historical and Heritage Studies / unrestricted

This dissertation examines the way in which South African colonial texts may be read for the historical signs they inadvertently reveal. The history of land acquisition in South Africa may be read through the representation of burial and illegitimate pregnancy in South African farm novels. Both burial and illegitimate pregnancy are read as signifiers of illegitimacy in the texts, surfacing, by indirection, the question of the illegitimacy of land acquisition in South Africa. The South African farm novel offers a representational form which seeks (or fails) to mediate the question of land ownership and the relationship between colon and indigene. In the four texts under discussion, Olive Schreiner's The Story of an African Farm, Florence Ethel Mills Young's The Bywonner[sic], Pauline Smith's The Beadle and Daphne Rooke's Mittee, the representation of burial and illegitimate pregnancy is problematic and marked by narrative displacements and discursive breakdowns. KEY TERMS burial, colonial discourse, farm novel, illegitimacy, illegitimate pregnancy, land, postcolonial theory, representation / English / M.A. (English)

Date in university's graduation list: April 2003. / Thesis (MA (VA))--Stellenbosch University, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The body of the thesis explores contemporary South African printmaking by focusing on The Caversham Press, established in 1985. Caversham's success encouraged the opening of four other studios, which formed the core of professional printmaking in South Africa up to 2000. Positioning Caversham in a broader arena, the politicised nature of printmaking in South Africa prior to 1985 is discussed and six projects produced at the Press between 1985 and 2000 are examined to situate the Press within the South African socio-economic and cultural context. Finally, the interaction between prints from Caversham Press projects and the art market in Johannesburg is described and analysed to ascertain the extent to which these six projects were products of their time and place in South African art history. In Appendices IV and V, the candidate's own printmaking work, which examines male midlife depression and its impact on the marital relationship, is discussed. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die hoofdeel van die tesis ondersoek die hedendaagse Suid-Afrikaanse drukkuns op die werk van The Caversham Press wat in 1985 gestig is, te fokus. Caversham se sukses het aanleiding gegee tot die ontstaan van vier ander drukkunsateljees wat die kern van professionele drukkuns gevorm het tot in die jaar 2000. Deur Caversham in 'n breër konteks te plaas, word die gepolitiseerde aard van drukkuns in Suid-Afrika voor 1985 bespreek. Verder word die ses ondernemings wat deur Caversham tussen 1985 en 2000 opgelewer is in die konteks van sosio-ekonomiese en kulturele omstandighede ondersoek. Ten slotte word die interaksie tussen Caversham Press projekte en die kunsmark van Johannesburg ontleed en bespreek met die doelom vas te stel tot hoe 'n mate hierdie ses projekte die tyd en plek van die Suid- Afrikaanse kunsgeskiedenis reflekteer. In Bylae IV en V, word die kandidaat se eie drukkunswerke, wat depressie in mideljarige mans ondersoek en die gevolg daarvan op die huweliksverhouding uitbeeld, bespreek.

During the 1970s the plays of Pieter-Dirk Uys became causes celebres. In the 1980s he was, commercially and artistically, arguably the most successful South African satirist. By 1990 he had gained recognition in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Germany. Yet relatively little research has been undertaken or published which evaluates his contribution to South African theatre as a playwright and performer of political satire. This dissertation aims to document and assess the satiric work of Uys and that of his precursors and contemporaries. The first chapter identifies certain characteristic features and purposes of satire as a creative method which cannot be defined in purely literary terms. The views of local practitioners and references to its manifestation in various non-literary and indigenous forms are included to support the descriptive approach to satire in performance adopted in later chapters. Of necessity to a study of Uys's lampoons, Chapter 2 discusses the origins of lampoon and the theatrical presentation of actual persons by Aristophanes (the first extant Western playwright to do so). Both the textual and visual ridicule of Socrates, Euripides, Cleon and Lamachus are considered, to argue that Aristophanes employed the nominal character as a factional type to exemplify a concept for humorous rather than meliorative purposes. Part One of Chapter 3 is a necessarily selective survey of the diversity, style and censorship of satire in South Africa in various theatrical, literary and journalistic forms. Part Two describes the use of satire by Adam Leslie, Jeremy Taylor, Robert Kirby and, more recently, Paul Slabolepszy, Mark Banks, Ian Fraser, Eric Miyeni and the 'alternative' Afrikaners in plays and in revue, cabaret and stand-up comedy. Chapter 4 examines the principal themes of Uys's plays to date, the 1981-1992 revues as entertainment and as a reflection of certain social and political issues, the similarities between his theatrical praxis and that of Aristophanes, and his satiric strategies in performance: his preparatory and visual signifiers, his concern with proxemics, and his mastery of kinesics, paralanguage and chronemics in depicting a spectrum of fictional and non-fictional personae, including Evita Bezuidenhout, P.W. Botha and the Uys-persona. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1993.

This dissertation examines the way in which South African colonial texts may be read for the historical signs they inadvertently reveal. The history of land acquisition in South Africa may be read through the representation of burial and illegitimate pregnancy in South African farm novels. Both burial and illegitimate pregnancy are read as signifiers of illegitimacy in the texts, surfacing, by indirection, the question of the illegitimacy of land acquisition in South Africa. The South African farm novel offers a representational form which seeks (or fails) to mediate the question of land ownership and the relationship between colon and indigene. In the four texts under discussion, Olive Schreiner's The Story of an African Farm, Florence Ethel Mills Young's The Bywonner[sic], Pauline Smith's The Beadle and Daphne Rooke's Mittee, the representation of burial and illegitimate pregnancy is problematic and marked by narrative displacements and discursive breakdowns. KEY TERMS burial, colonial discourse, farm novel, illegitimacy, illegitimate pregnancy, land, postcolonial theory, representation / English / M.A. (English)

Orientador: Robert Wayne Andrew Slenes / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T02:15:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gomes_RaquelGryszczenkoAlves_M.pdf: 1752359 bytes, checksum: 3e33e35f8962c9d619d450b209d8717e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Olive Emilie Albertina Schreiner (1855-1920), literata sul-africana de origem anglófona, é hoje lembrada essencialmente por sua contribuição para o campo dos estudos de gênero e sexualidade, bem como por seu romance de estréia - The Story of an African Farm, publicado em 1883. Centramos nossa análise no período de expansão econômico-territorial sul-africana - aqui delimitado entre os anos 1880 e 1902 - para apreender o diálogo da escrita de Schreiner com os impactos da política imperialista britânica nas relações entre ingleses e bôeres; ingleses e nativos e nativos e bôeres. É também neste período que a literata começa a articular sua idéia de nação sul-africana e assume uma política de combate à exploração do nativo pelo sistema capitalista, além de estruturar um discurso de apoio ao bôer. Para tanto, à leitura de The Story of an African Farm associamos também o estudo de obras que receberam até então pouco destaque: Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland (1897) e Thoughts on South Africa (1923*). / Abstract: Olive Emilie Albertina Schreiner (1855-1920), South African writer of anglophone origin, is nowadays remembered primarily for her contribution to the field of gender and sexuality studies, as well as for her debut novel, The Story of an African Farm (1883). Focusing our analysis on the economic expansion of South African territory - period delimited here between years 1880-1902 - we intend to explore the dialog of her writings with the impacts of British imperialist policy in the relations between British and the Boers, British and natives and between natives and Boers. It is also during this period that the literate begins to articulate her idea of a South African nation and engages herself in a policy to combat the exploitation of the native by the capitalist system, besides articulating a speech in support of the Boer cause. Therefore, to the reading of The Story of an African Farm we also associated the study of some works that received little attention so far: Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland (1897) and Thoughts on South Africa (1923*). / Mestrado / Historia Social / Mestre em História

The Cape Town Orchestra has exerted a major influence on the development of orchestral music and musical culture not only in Cape Town but throughout South Africa. It was the first professional orchestra in South Africa and came into existence on 28 February 1914. The Orchestra's history has been divided into two main periods. During the first period, from 1914 to 1968, the Orchestra was known as the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra. During the second period, from 1969 until its final performance in 1997, the Orchestra was known as the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. The Orchestra received financial support from the Cape Town Municipality throughout its existence. After receiving its final municipal grant in 1996 the Orchestra could not survive without financial assistance, and merged with the Capab Orchestra to become the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra. The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra gave. its inaugural performance on 1 April 1997. / Musicology / M.Mus.

Sir George Grey (1812-1898) served as Governor of South Australia, of New Zealand twice, and of the Cape Colony. This thesis explains his policy for the first time for a history of the political ideas of colonization. Grey introduced the policy of racial amalgamation to settler colonies after the 1837 Report of the Select Committee into Aboriginal Affairs, that had advised the policy of segregation as had been North American policy under Sir William Johnson. This thesis demonstrates that Grey was a Liberal Anglican who had adopted neo-Harringtonian thought, and who introduced Jeffersonian native policy into British native policy. He practised the strategic theory of Antoine-Henri Jomini, applying it to native policy. Grey captured the monarchical constitution of the empire for what had been a settler policy of dissent to the segregation of indigenes that dated back to Tudor Ireland and early Viginia. Grey's distinctive intellectual practices were ethnograpical research and speculation, for which he enjoyed an international reputation, and the constitutional design of settler colonies, an activity he came to totally identify with. The thesis concentrates on his first New Zealand governorship (1845-53) and upon the resumption of his second New Zealand governorship (1861-68) because it was in that colony he first fully practised his native policy and participated in constitutional design, and into which he brought about a crisis of indigenous amalgamation on the eve of the Waikato War in 1863, having introduced full responsible government.